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Those who know me will know that I have always been a fan of real-time strategy games. From the classic Command & Conquer by the now disbanded Westwood Studios, to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, I have built up armies, smashed enemy command centres and conquered worlds. Even my first prize choice many years ago on this website was Command & Conquer Red Alert 2, which I still regard as one of my favourite games today! So how, I hear you ask, am I only getting around to attempting Microsoft and Ensemble’s efforts in the genre now? I can only answer that question as an upcoming presidential candidate and contender for Republican loony generation would by saying that the reason is because, and the, as I have, nice hat! Yeah, you over there, nice hat!
So Age of Empires III then. I would just like to add, I haven’t yet played Age of Empires I or II, and so I am a complete ‘noob’ to the series. Set in colonial times, the tale involves three seperate generations of a family who find themselves in a war against an elite cult called the Circle, who are intent on finding out the secrets of what is effectively a fountain of youth, of which they intend to use for their own evil means. Think the Templars in Assassin’s Creed. It is your job as the player to work through the story mode to gain allies and prevent the Circle from succeeding in their goals.
As with most RTS games, this starts off at a very basic level to ease you into the game. With limited units at your disposal and easy stages to beat you’ll pick up the basic idea without difficulty. The main key element to this, as with any other RTS, is managing your resources effectively to get the quickest build up of structures and units to defend yourself and overpower your enemy. The resources available are wood, food and gold. These need to be obtained through mining, hunting (or foraging) and by cutting down trees. Any of these actions can be undertaken by your settler units which have a weak defence and offence, but are very skillfull at tasks. They are also used to build structures and each are interchangeable.
Your offensive units operate on a system a bit like rock-paper-scissors. Swords are good against pikes, pikes are good against cavalry, Cavalry are good against guns and artillery, and so on. However, if you’re good at building up your resources, you’ll overpower your enemies by sheer numbers alone.
Almost every action in the game builds up experience too which is used to buy ‘cards’ to play in the game (whether single or multiplayer). The more cards you earn, the greater your advantage against the computer or human opponents. Cards are used to collect resources from your home city which can be activated in-game once you have again gained enough experience. These range from spawning extra resources at your base to generating additional units. This can be a powerful tool to use early on against an opponent as it can allow you to have heavy artillery or a plethora of units to attack with whilst your opponent is still building up their squads.
My main beef I hold with this game is it’s length. If you’re good at it, it won’t take you long to complete and you’ll rely on multiplayer modes to satisfy your AoE cravings. However, for a ten year old game, this one seems to have lasted the test of time and won’t need rose-tinted specs to be enjoyed by current gamers who are yet to try it out. It looks a little bit dated and the soundtrack isn’t as enthralling as a 2015 game, but it still looks nice and has a good feel to it. It’s simple enough to get into and control is done via keyboard and mouse so most modern PCs or laptops will play it with ease and without having to buy any expensive peripherals to get the maximum enjoyment out of it. Unfortunately, despite its age, it still costs £29.99 to buy the AoEIII Complete Edition (at the date reviewed) via Steam. However, I wouldn’t have paid full price and most likely bought it either as part of a discount bundle that many websites now do for Steam games, or through a Steam sale. So if you’re an RTS fan and want to try something you perhaps haven’t yet, then keep an eye on this game and wait for it to be discounted to get hold of a classic that, unlike many other games of the era that have aged and withered, is still enjoyable a decade on.
VII/X
So Age of Empires III then. I would just like to add, I haven’t yet played Age of Empires I or II, and so I am a complete ‘noob’ to the series. Set in colonial times, the tale involves three seperate generations of a family who find themselves in a war against an elite cult called the Circle, who are intent on finding out the secrets of what is effectively a fountain of youth, of which they intend to use for their own evil means. Think the Templars in Assassin’s Creed. It is your job as the player to work through the story mode to gain allies and prevent the Circle from succeeding in their goals.
As with most RTS games, this starts off at a very basic level to ease you into the game. With limited units at your disposal and easy stages to beat you’ll pick up the basic idea without difficulty. The main key element to this, as with any other RTS, is managing your resources effectively to get the quickest build up of structures and units to defend yourself and overpower your enemy. The resources available are wood, food and gold. These need to be obtained through mining, hunting (or foraging) and by cutting down trees. Any of these actions can be undertaken by your settler units which have a weak defence and offence, but are very skillfull at tasks. They are also used to build structures and each are interchangeable.
Your offensive units operate on a system a bit like rock-paper-scissors. Swords are good against pikes, pikes are good against cavalry, Cavalry are good against guns and artillery, and so on. However, if you’re good at building up your resources, you’ll overpower your enemies by sheer numbers alone.
Almost every action in the game builds up experience too which is used to buy ‘cards’ to play in the game (whether single or multiplayer). The more cards you earn, the greater your advantage against the computer or human opponents. Cards are used to collect resources from your home city which can be activated in-game once you have again gained enough experience. These range from spawning extra resources at your base to generating additional units. This can be a powerful tool to use early on against an opponent as it can allow you to have heavy artillery or a plethora of units to attack with whilst your opponent is still building up their squads.
My main beef I hold with this game is it’s length. If you’re good at it, it won’t take you long to complete and you’ll rely on multiplayer modes to satisfy your AoE cravings. However, for a ten year old game, this one seems to have lasted the test of time and won’t need rose-tinted specs to be enjoyed by current gamers who are yet to try it out. It looks a little bit dated and the soundtrack isn’t as enthralling as a 2015 game, but it still looks nice and has a good feel to it. It’s simple enough to get into and control is done via keyboard and mouse so most modern PCs or laptops will play it with ease and without having to buy any expensive peripherals to get the maximum enjoyment out of it. Unfortunately, despite its age, it still costs £29.99 to buy the AoEIII Complete Edition (at the date reviewed) via Steam. However, I wouldn’t have paid full price and most likely bought it either as part of a discount bundle that many websites now do for Steam games, or through a Steam sale. So if you’re an RTS fan and want to try something you perhaps haven’t yet, then keep an eye on this game and wait for it to be discounted to get hold of a classic that, unlike many other games of the era that have aged and withered, is still enjoyable a decade on.
VII/X
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Those who know me will know that I have always been a fan of real-time strategy games. From the classic Command & Conquer by the now disbanded Westwood Studios, to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, I have built up armies, smashed enemy command centres and conquered worlds. Even my first prize choice many years ago on this website was Command & Conquer Red Alert 2, which I still regard as one of my favourite games today! So how, I hear you ask, am I only getting around to attempting Microsoft and Ensemble’s efforts in the genre now? I can only answer that question as an upcoming presidential candidate and contender for Republican loony generation would by saying that the reason is because, and the, as I have, nice hat! Yeah, you over there, nice hat!
So Age of Empires III then. I would just like to add, I haven’t yet played Age of Empires I or II, and so I am a complete ‘noob’ to the series. Set in colonial times, the tale involves three seperate generations of a family who find themselves in a war against an elite cult called the Circle, who are intent on finding out the secrets of what is effectively a fountain of youth, of which they intend to use for their own evil means. Think the Templars in Assassin’s Creed. It is your job as the player to work through the story mode to gain allies and prevent the Circle from succeeding in their goals.
As with most RTS games, this starts off at a very basic level to ease you into the game. With limited units at your disposal and easy stages to beat you’ll pick up the basic idea without difficulty. The main key element to this, as with any other RTS, is managing your resources effectively to get the quickest build up of structures and units to defend yourself and overpower your enemy. The resources available are wood, food and gold. These need to be obtained through mining, hunting (or foraging) and by cutting down trees. Any of these actions can be undertaken by your settler units which have a weak defence and offence, but are very skillfull at tasks. They are also used to build structures and each are interchangeable.
Your offensive units operate on a system a bit like rock-paper-scissors. Swords are good against pikes, pikes are good against cavalry, Cavalry are good against guns and artillery, and so on. However, if you’re good at building up your resources, you’ll overpower your enemies by sheer numbers alone.
Almost every action in the game builds up experience too which is used to buy ‘cards’ to play in the game (whether single or multiplayer). The more cards you earn, the greater your advantage against the computer or human opponents. Cards are used to collect resources from your home city which can be activated in-game once you have again gained enough experience. These range from spawning extra resources at your base to generating additional units. This can be a powerful tool to use early on against an opponent as it can allow you to have heavy artillery or a plethora of units to attack with whilst your opponent is still building up their squads.
My main beef I hold with this game is it’s length. If you’re good at it, it won’t take you long to complete and you’ll rely on multiplayer modes to satisfy your AoE cravings. However, for a ten year old game, this one seems to have lasted the test of time and won’t need rose-tinted specs to be enjoyed by current gamers who are yet to try it out. It looks a little bit dated and the soundtrack isn’t as enthralling as a 2015 game, but it still looks nice and has a good feel to it. It’s simple enough to get into and control is done via keyboard and mouse so most modern PCs or laptops will play it with ease and without having to buy any expensive peripherals to get the maximum enjoyment out of it. Unfortunately, despite its age, it still costs £29.99 to buy the AoEIII Complete Edition (at the date reviewed) via Steam. However, I wouldn’t have paid full price and most likely bought it either as part of a discount bundle that many websites now do for Steam games, or through a Steam sale. So if you’re an RTS fan and want to try something you perhaps haven’t yet, then keep an eye on this game and wait for it to be discounted to get hold of a classic that, unlike many other games of the era that have aged and withered, is still enjoyable a decade on.
VII/X
So Age of Empires III then. I would just like to add, I haven’t yet played Age of Empires I or II, and so I am a complete ‘noob’ to the series. Set in colonial times, the tale involves three seperate generations of a family who find themselves in a war against an elite cult called the Circle, who are intent on finding out the secrets of what is effectively a fountain of youth, of which they intend to use for their own evil means. Think the Templars in Assassin’s Creed. It is your job as the player to work through the story mode to gain allies and prevent the Circle from succeeding in their goals.
As with most RTS games, this starts off at a very basic level to ease you into the game. With limited units at your disposal and easy stages to beat you’ll pick up the basic idea without difficulty. The main key element to this, as with any other RTS, is managing your resources effectively to get the quickest build up of structures and units to defend yourself and overpower your enemy. The resources available are wood, food and gold. These need to be obtained through mining, hunting (or foraging) and by cutting down trees. Any of these actions can be undertaken by your settler units which have a weak defence and offence, but are very skillfull at tasks. They are also used to build structures and each are interchangeable.
Your offensive units operate on a system a bit like rock-paper-scissors. Swords are good against pikes, pikes are good against cavalry, Cavalry are good against guns and artillery, and so on. However, if you’re good at building up your resources, you’ll overpower your enemies by sheer numbers alone.
Almost every action in the game builds up experience too which is used to buy ‘cards’ to play in the game (whether single or multiplayer). The more cards you earn, the greater your advantage against the computer or human opponents. Cards are used to collect resources from your home city which can be activated in-game once you have again gained enough experience. These range from spawning extra resources at your base to generating additional units. This can be a powerful tool to use early on against an opponent as it can allow you to have heavy artillery or a plethora of units to attack with whilst your opponent is still building up their squads.
My main beef I hold with this game is it’s length. If you’re good at it, it won’t take you long to complete and you’ll rely on multiplayer modes to satisfy your AoE cravings. However, for a ten year old game, this one seems to have lasted the test of time and won’t need rose-tinted specs to be enjoyed by current gamers who are yet to try it out. It looks a little bit dated and the soundtrack isn’t as enthralling as a 2015 game, but it still looks nice and has a good feel to it. It’s simple enough to get into and control is done via keyboard and mouse so most modern PCs or laptops will play it with ease and without having to buy any expensive peripherals to get the maximum enjoyment out of it. Unfortunately, despite its age, it still costs £29.99 to buy the AoEIII Complete Edition (at the date reviewed) via Steam. However, I wouldn’t have paid full price and most likely bought it either as part of a discount bundle that many websites now do for Steam games, or through a Steam sale. So if you’re an RTS fan and want to try something you perhaps haven’t yet, then keep an eye on this game and wait for it to be discounted to get hold of a classic that, unlike many other games of the era that have aged and withered, is still enjoyable a decade on.
VII/X